The first obstacle was dragging myself out of my warm comfortable bed at 430am on Saturday, the day of the event. It had started to drizzle outside and I immediately dreaded running Viper Genting in the rain. Cold plus rain equals a miserable me.
Fortunately, it stopped drizzling by the time we arrived at the Ranch in Awana, Genting. The race village was already packed with food trucks and people camping out in tents and chairs, kindly prepared by the race organisers. At 7am on the dot (with shockingly no delays) the elite wave flagged off and those in the race village could see them sprinting up the hill and out of sight. Then came 8am and it was my team's turn to hit the course.
Despite my initial humble insistence of "no running, only walking uphill," I ended up running all the way. The weather was just that nice. And also, I wanted to get ahead of the crowd before the wet trails were turned to mush and the queues built up at the obstacles.
Participants were greeted with a few new obstacles that were trialed and tested by the Viper team a month ago such as the Wheel of Death and the Fence climb. In favour of protecting my new camera, I gave a couple of the staple obstacles amiss to take photos. Barely any walls sighted through out the course save for one under and over walls after the ever-fun electric curtain.
The downhill stretch was fun. Running all the way and seeing the later waves struggling across the road on the uphill stretch, it felt good. Made me feel like a top class athlete who didn't wheeze her way uphill earlier. The route had us circling back to the race village where a plethora of obstacles awaited.
Honestly, it was like running to a playground with toys after toys after toys. Now, I had a sneak preview of the Wheel of Death during the Viper test run earlier in June and knew pretty much what to expect of it - random rotating rungs. Of course, while my mind was prepared, my body wasn't and it was down into the water for me. Not that I minded. I enjoyed swimming.
It was wet, wet, wet all the way to the finish line and was an exuberant experience it was on a whole. Genting has always been one of the best of Viper's offerings with a manageable distance, a fast course, plenty of obstacles, a happening race village with booze and of course, a blessed cooling weather that was just meant for obstacle course racing.
Thumbs up to the organizers and volunteers, especially the vibrant girl at the roundabout who kept cheering on the participants with her cheery smiles and supportive cheers. The event was a massive fun day out. If it was a two days event (hint hint), I would sign up for both days. Just for the heck of it.
And also as an excuse to go up to Genting Premium Outlet. That place is de best site for Bak Kut Teh and Go Noodle Soup.
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